Cosy at Carey's Caves

Job
satisfaction is important to Geoff Kell. Lucky for him, he has that in spades.

“People
would think I’m stupid, doing what I do for the money I am paid, but money’s
not the most important thing,” he said.

“I
grew up in a time when job satisfaction was paramount.”

Geoff
manages and conducts guides at Carey’s Caves just out of Wee Jasper. He has
done so for 20 years. The only money earned, is money paid by visitors when
they attend his tours.

In
Geoff’s opinion the caves are the region’s best kept secret, but he doesn’t
want that.

“Unfortunately
people simply don’t know it’s here,” he told the Tribune while deep in the
caves recently.

“People
from Yass especially seem to have no idea that there is such an amazing place
almost right on their doorstop. Most of our visitors are from Canberra or even
more abroad.”

The
caves were officially discovered by John Carey in the mid 1800s, but Geoff
believes it could be even earlier than that.

The
land is covered in limestone and the area, which would have been under water
years and years ago, dried up and has left the caves completely preserved.

“Caves
are the oldest thing around the world that go completely unchanged. If you
think about it, other things are damaged or change over time.”

Geoff
had no experience and knew very little about caves before he decided to lease
Carey’s Caves in 1992, with his partner Suzanne.

“I’ve
never been to ‘cave school’ but I like to think that’s a good thing. It means
my tours are different and people have a different experience when they come to
these caves.”

Geoff
has a table where visitors can touch all the rocks, and he has taken out a lot
of the chains, which would be present in other caves, that would usually stop
visitors from exploring.

“I
don’t like the conventional idea of a tour. People get bored on tours, kids get
tired. I do things a bit differently so that this can’t happen.”

Geoff
was born in Goulburn, but moved from place to place due to his parents work
commitments. His father always showed him the long way round and the tracks
other people didn’t see.

“When
I was younger I almost didn’t know what a sealed road was.”

After
high school he moved to Sydney and studied architecture. He worked for a brief
period before he left Australia for south-east Asia.

“My
main interest, and it still is, is music, culture and languages. I learnt to
speak Indonesian and I learnt to speak Thai.

“Just
travelling around and immersing myself in the culture was what I loved.”

Geoff
travelled lightly, hitch-hiking, and he spent very little money. It was in this
way that he was able to stay abroad for several years. He travelled to Bali,
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and he even found himself in Japan teaching English
for a year.

“Our
culture has changed in regards to hitch-hiking. The idea of helping people is
just so different now.

“Simply
stopping on the side of the road to help someone broken down is something that
is not even taken for granted. I think that is really sad.”

Geoff
said this appreciation of cultures and his love of languages have made his job
as a tour guide at Carey’s Caves perfect for him.

“The
people that come through these caves are amazing. I had a family from India for
example come through recently. By talking with them, meeting them, I would now
love to go there. These social experiences make my job wonderful.”

Geoff,
who can also speak French, would love to go to Europe and share his folk music
overseas, but at the moment he is still in love with what he does.

“Each
time I come down here I stop and say to myself ‘wow’. When that stops happening
I think it will be time to leave.”

Along
with regular tours, Carey’s Caves now accommodate weddings and music concerts.
There’s more information on the caves’ website.

Geoff Kell's adventurous life has led him to become at tour guide at Carey's Caves near Wee Jasper.